The Truth About Cardio

November 22, 2010

Today I want to talk to you about burning belly fat and getting six pack abs, and the truth about cardio training. Now, whenever people talk about weight loss they always say “oh I’ve got to start doing more cardio”, it’s not true, not true at all!

What you need to do is high intensity training to burn belly fat. In fact, if you want to get ripped abs and you want to burn belly fat, doing crunches and doing cardio, are two of the biggest wastes of times that you could possibly do.

What you need to do is like I said, high intensity training. I was just talking to a doctor tonight who was a cardio fanatic and he recently got injured doing cardio. I also know a physio therapist who is addicted to spin class, but she can’t even walk right because she’s doing too much cardio and she’s getting into what I call the “dark side of cardio”, which is overuse injury. If you do a lot of cardio, then you’re going to end up in trouble.

So I recommend total body training and high intensity training as they are much better at burning belly fat. Regular cardio is just ineffective and leads to overuse injuries. What I want you to do is something like interval training, using treadmills or sprinting, or even some more creative types of high intensity training, and include them at the end of your strength training workout.

For example, you can try doing a series of 2-hand Kettlebell swings. To do this exercise, just put the KB between your legs and drive up with lots of hip power. Do 30-45 seconds of swings, and you’re heart will surely be pounding by the end of it. Then you will rest for the exact amount of time you worked for. So, if you do 45 seconds of swings, then follow with 45 seconds of rest. Repeat this set 6 times to finish off one of your strength training workouts. That’s a much better way to burn belly fat and build a better body.

Alternatively, if you don’t have a KB, you can do burpees. For burpees, drop down, kick your legs out, do a pushup, and then jump up, then repeat. You can do this for 30 seconds, followed by 30-60 seconds of rest, repeating six times altogether. Again, this is a better, more athletic way of burning belly fat and a building a better beach body.

If you don’t like either of those options, then you can run in place for 30 seconds or you can do skipping. These are all different types of interval training that you can easily do at home without machines.

The last thing I want mention is bodyweight circuit training. The great thing about bodyweight is you guessed it, you don’t need any machines. So, instead of doing the options listed above, you can simply choose six bodyweight exercises; three lower body and three upper body, and alternate back and forth with no rest in between for 15 repetitions each. So, go through all six exercises, rest one minute and then repeat two to three times.

For example, you might do prisoner squats for 15 repetitions. Be sure to keep your elbows back and shoulder blades together.

Then move immediately into an easy, regular pushup for 15 repetitions.

Next, you can do walking lunges at 15 steps per side.

After all those repetitions are completed you can go into a harder pushup-type of exercise, such as the decline close-grip pushup. With hands shoulder-width apart and feet up on the bench, drop down, keeping your elbows tucked into your sides.

From there, move into vertical jumps.

To finish off, try doing cross-body mountain climbers. So, in the top of the pushup position, bring your knee up to your opposite elbow and back out, alternating sides. Do this for 15 repetitions per side and by the end your heart rate will be sky high. Take a minute rest, and then repeat the circuit two more times for a total body circuit that you can do at home.

Those are all different types of high intensity training that you can do to burn fat and get ripped abs without doing long slow boring cardio and increasing your risk of overuse injury.